That was the word for the Day on Thursday, at the Toastmasters meeting.
I had to look it up. My pocket dictionary, said,
"partially or improperly dressed."
The first thing that came to my mind was the teenagers at the High School where I used to work. I would say almost all of them were dishabille. The boys wore huge long Tee shirts to hide the fact that the gymn shorts or jeans they had on were hanging off their butts. I call that imPROPERly dressed.
And the girls had on strapless tops (not allowed in the dress code) and tiny shorts or skirts (not allowed either, but usually ignored. At least they had shorts or a skirt on.) I call that partially dressed or scantily clad.
Scantily Clad??!! Scantily? CLAD?!
Scantily--the adverb form of the adjective scanty.
(Actually that is not in my dictionary, but I'm sticking with it. "Scantly" does not sound right to me. And it may be a typo.)
Clad-- clad? what is that? Is that a word? I know I have heard it, but is it in the dictionary??? Yes, it is! Adjective, meaning covered or clothed.
At the meeting, it was defined as wearing casual clothing, or perhaps too casual.
And the pronunciation is dis uh BEEL. From the French word meaning undressed.
Not "dish" as in disheveled.
The official dictionary says, the state of being dressed in a casual or careless style.
So I can definitely say that I never go to work dishabille.
I can also tell my child not to go to school dishabille.
And I can call those high school students dishabille.
Also think of a child when they learn how to dress themselves, but can't match up the buttons properly, find things that match, or maybe leave something out. Children like to be dishabille, in the sense of not completely covered up, barefoot or topless.
I can really use this word in Florida, where people spend most of the year dishabille. Especially at the beach, but not just at the beach.
My advice, Don't leave home dishabille! Bring a sweater, just in case.
